Health Insurance Disclosure Required for New Divorce Agreements

Daniel Clement’s blog has an interesting item regarding a new medical insurance disclosure requirement for New York state divorce agreements and judgments. The law mandates that all divorce settlement agreements contain specific language advising the parties that they may lose their health insurance as a result of the entry of a judgment of divorce.  The law requires the Court to ensure that the statutory language is contained in the agreement. The law takes effect on November 1, 2007.

This new law is, in my opinion, completely unnecessary and will do nothing but cause confusion and delay in the resolution of divorce actions for several months while the Courts and matrimonial attorneys update their forms and procedures to accommodate the additional language. 

In my experience, I have never had a cause where a party was unaware that he or she would lose his or her health insurance after a divorce was finalized. In fact, for many of my clients the questions surrounding the loss and cost of health insurance after a divorce were a major point of negotiation and contention.

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Custody - March 19, 2008 12:20 PM
Updated… Finding a Divorce Lawyer. I have posted another blog on finding a divorce lawyer and the importance of this. I thought it would be good to do another and refresh the mind or for those who have just joined divorce and child to do research. It i...
College Student Health Insurance - March 20, 2008 1:04 AM
Thanks for writing this! Good information, well thought out, a pleasure to read!
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Tricia - February 12, 2008 8:16 PM

My son just turned 21 and I found out my ex cancelled his healthcare insurance two months ago. He is a full time college student and has no insurance, nor were we notified.

Do I have any legal rights in this situation?

melissa - March 9, 2009 5:05 PM

My son is created via IVF and egg donation 2 years ago. My husband in speaking about divorce said I have no legal right to him once we divorce since the child is "only his" biologically. Is there any truth to this in NYS Family Law?

Earle - March 25, 2009 11:30 AM

I am in South Carolina and am in process of divorce. If it is the divorce agreement that I will maintain health insurance for some period of time (and assume that it is longer than Cobra)will health insurance provider be required to continue on spouse. I know in this state that it is if judge requires but i am not sure if that means the two parties can come to mutual consent and write it into agreement on their own. Hope i make sense with question.

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